Trooper charged with DUI in state police vehicle waives charges
A state police trooper accused of driving drunk when he allegedly struck a parked vehicle in North Strabane with his state-issued SUV last September waived his DUI case to court Friday.
Jeffrey Tihey, 39, of North Strabane, waived two misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence during his preliminary hearing after the proceeding had been rescheduled three times in the past six months.
Tihey is accused of having a blood-alcohol level of three times the legal limit to drive a vehicle shortly before midnight Sept. 30 when investigators said he struck a pickup truck parked outside North Strabane Fire Station No. 3 at 430 Johnson Road. A firefighter inside the station heard a thumping sound outside and came out to find damage to his pickup truck and Tihey’s unmarked police SUV nearby with a flat tire.
A test taken at Canonsburg Hospital revealed Tihey had a blood-alcohol level of .24% at the time, according to court documents. North Strabane police charged him Nov. 22.
He appeared Friday with his attorney, David Shrager, at the preliminary hearing in Washington before District Judge Lou McQuillan, who set his bond at $1,000 unsecured.
Tihey is eligible for the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, although Shrager asked for the case to be scheduled for a DUI hearing in Washington County Court at 9 a.m. Sept. 22 to allow them time to make a decision later whether they want to go through the diversionary program or contest the charges at trial. ARD typically comes with a temporary license suspension, although the charges are expunged from the defendant’s record if the program is successfully completed. However, Tihey would likely be terminated from the state police if he chose that route since the incident allegedly happened in a state-issued vehicle.
Tihey, who is assigned to the state police’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, has been on restricted duty since the incident.
He is one of two troopers from the Washington County barracks to be charged with DUI in a state vehicle in the past few months. Jared Clyde Johnson, 46, of South Franklin Township, is accused of driving under the influence in his marked police SUV while on patrol May 12 in which a supervisor allegedly found a rum bottle inside the vehicle. Johnson waived his case to court June 17 and is scheduled for a DUI hearing Aug. 22.